Slowly he reached his feet, and the white-eyed mother ran in open-mouthed.  She gripped the sinews of his hind leg and held on.  The pack crowded in.  Haw!  It was no fight.  The bull looked after his brother, who was slowly moving to the vlei, moaning as he went.  Then, but for a little time, he fought as a chief should fight when his foes are on him.  With a swing of his head here, and a swing there, he stove in the ribs of two of the pack; then he sprang on another, flung him, as a boy would a stone, into the air, watched him go up, watched him come down, then flung him up again, and fell forward on his knees with his nose on the ground, and the pack snapped the flesh from him in mouthfuls.  The other bull turned not at the howling of the pack.  He walked on slow and straight to the vlei, drank deep, and made a bed in the mud.  He covered his wounds with mud, and when his wounds were healed he was an outcast.  The troop had another leader, and the old cow led them all to another grazing-ground.”

“And what became of you, Muata?”

“Muata stayed in the tree.  Mawoh!  Muata was afraid.  The mother of the pack had not forgotten.  Even while she ate she looked at him, and when the milk-mothers with their young came to the forest, having been called, she lay off and watched, with her evil eyes on me.  The jackals, smelling blood, howled, sitting on their haunches, and a lion came up growling in his throat.  But he did not come right up; he stood a way off, watching, and presently he stretched himself on his stomach to wait.  Haw!  Even the lion will not attempt to drive the pack from its kill.  Ow aye, it is so.  The old mother never turned her eyes to watch the lion, but when the pups played, having eaten their fill, she stood up.  The pack looked at her and moved off; then the lion rose and came forward.  The old one stood her ground, and the great one, when he was within three bounds of her, also stood.  The white eyes turned away from the yellow eyes—­ they turned to me; then she yapped and went off after the pack.  The lion looked after her; then he stretched himself on the ground again and stared.  He lifted his head to the wind and sniffed.  Mawoh!  Well, I knew the old mother had told him of my presence; but the lion never looks up.  It was well for me, for his mind was uneasy.  A long time he lay, while the jackals sat howling.  Then he crept round the tree and the carcase.  Twice he crept round; then, as the smell of the meal was too much, he trotted up to the carcass and growled at his feast.  His back was toward me, and I fled.”

“And did you meet the white-eyed mother again?”

“The wisest among the people I have met,” said Muata, gravely, “was a woman; and among the creatures of the forest, the wisest was a she-dog.  It is in my mind that the leader of the pack was umtaguati.  Ow aye, she was a wizard; and it is not well to make war against such.”

Venning looked at the chief with curiosity.  “Are there many wizards in the forest, Muata?” he asked with a smile.